Men's Track & Field at NCAA Championships

Marcus Huderle Advances at NCAA Championships

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- Marcus Huderle (So./Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) finished fifth in his preliminary heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Thursday evening at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. With that result, he secured a spot in Saturday’s event final.

The No. 18 seed for this year’s national meet, Huderle turned in the ninth-fastest time in the prelims as he completed the course in 9:15.77. The preliminaries consisted of two heats with the top five finishers in each heat, plus the next four fastest times moving on to Saturday’s race. Huderle is one of two underclassmen to earn a slot in the 14-runner field for the event final, which will be run at 2:10 p.m. PDT.

Prior to Thursday, Huderle had not lost a steeplechase race in 2012. His time of 9:11.16 at the 2012 MIAC Championships was the event’s fastest time at the conference meet over the last 15 years. A week later, he crossed the line at 9:06.87 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse NCAA Qualifier. With that stellar time, Huderle joined an elite club as only five MIAC athletes have run a time under 9:10 in the past 15 years.